Remember when I wrote about my experience teaching Python and Scratch to kids through Code in the Community? Well, the journey didn’t end there. The enthusiasm I witnessed in those 8-10 year olds at Jurong West Public Library stayed with me, and recently, I took the plunge to conduct my own Programming Scratch bootcamp.
Namaste 🙏 and welcome to my blog. I write about product management, data science, and software engineering. For more: About Me | Mentoring | Blog | My Recommendations
You may have had cheese cakes. But it won’t be an understatement to say that this place is an experience more than a cheese cake shop. A long line will (most probably) greet you as soon as you enter the area. But I have never enjoyed waiting in line – you can see the staff preparing cheese cake while you are waiting. If you are a foodie and enjoy cooking food as well, oh boy! What a delight watching cheese cake preparation and baking. Eating it right out of the over has its own taste. This Cheese cake is extremely fluffy, smooth and very mildly sweet (in a good way). The bottom layer of the cake has raisins sprinkled on the outer circumference. Extremely yumm! If you’re ever in Osaka, Japan, do try this and thank me later!
The photos below were taken outside their transparent kitchen.
Raisins spread around the circumference of the baking pan.
As an engineer turned startup founder, I’ve read my fair share of business books, but “The Money Trap” by Alok Sama? This is something else entirely.
Imagine getting an unfiltered backstage pass to SoftBank’s Vision Fund, with all its audacious deals and larger-than-life personalities. Sama’s narrative isn’t just a book; it’s like sitting with a seasoned insider who’s seen the tech investment world’s most intimate moments.
What drew me in was Sama’s incredible journey working alongside Masayoshi Son – a relationship that’s part mentorship, part rollercoaster ride. His storytelling effortlessly breaks down complex billion-dollar deals into digestible, almost cinematic narratives. As someone who geeks out about startup ecosystems and finance, this book was like finding a hidden treasure.
The real magic? Sama doesn’t just describe events; he humanizes them. He reveals the emotional and strategic underpinnings of massive tech investments, making you feel like you’re right there in the room when game-changing decisions are made.
If you’re a tech enthusiast, startup founder, or just someone who loves understanding the mechanics behind global technology investments, this book is your new bible. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.
As an engineer turned startup founder, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz hit me like a freight train of raw, unfiltered truth about the entrepreneurial journey. This isn’t your typical sugar-coated success story; it’s a gritty, no-holds-barred account of the rollercoaster ride that is building and running a company.
Horowitz doesn’t just scratch the surface; he dives deep into the trenches of entrepreneurship, sharing war stories that made me nod in recognition and wince in empathy. From the constant near-death experiences of his companies to the sleepless nights filled with cold sweats, his narrative resonates with the very core of what it means to be a founder.
What struck me most was Horowitz’s candid approach to the psychological toll of leadership. He lays bare the emotional turbulence of being a CEO, something I’ve experienced firsthand but rarely see discussed so openly. His advice on managing your own psychology as a leader is gold – it’s not just about keeping the company afloat, but also about keeping your sanity intact.
The book doesn’t offer a magic formula for success (because, let’s face it, there isn’t one), but it does provide a framework for thinking about and tackling the hardest problems in business. Horowitz’s insights on making decisions when there are no good options, dealing with the loneliness of leadership, and the importance of building a culture that can withstand the storms of startup life are invaluable.
One of the most powerful takeaways for me was the concept of “eating shit” – not nibbling, but taking big bites when necessary. It’s a stark reminder that as founders, we often have to make tough, unpalatable decisions for the greater good of our companies.
Horowitz’s emphasis on transparency and straight talk resonates deeply with my own leadership style. His mantra of “tell it like it is” is a refreshing antidote to the corporate doublespeak we often encounter.
Perhaps the most comforting aspect of the book is its normalization of struggle. As Horowitz puts it, “The Struggle is where greatness comes from.” It’s a powerful reminder that the challenges we face as founders aren’t signs of failure, but crucibles for growth.
In essence, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” isn’t just a book; it’s a battle-hardened companion for the entrepreneurial journey. It doesn’t promise to make the hard things easy, but it does make you feel less alone in facing them. For any founder navigating the stormy seas of startup life, this book isn’t just recommended reading – it’s essential survival gear.
Namaste 🙏 and welcome to my blog. I write about product management, data science, and software engineering. For more: About Me | Mentoring | Blog | My Recommendations
AI started integrating in our daily lives in the form of humble Youtube, Amazon recommendations, to the addictive Instagram and TikTok reels, to chatbots, smart home devices, and so much more. However, AI got a lot more pervasive when companies like OpenAI (ChatGPT), Google (Gemini), Facebook (Llama), Microsoft (Copilot) built LLMs (Large Language Models) which had the capability to generate human-like conversations and enabled us to refine and steer conversations towards the length, format, style, detail, and language, we desired.
The growth of LLMs spawned several more use cases which allowed people to use AI in professional lives as well. So, while discussing the use cases with my fellow product managers, I figured there’s a lot of content on which tools to use & for which purpose. However, a lot of content on how to use those tools for niche use cases is still behind paywall.
That’s when, I decided to write a multi-part blog series on AI Prototyping where I will pick a tool and share a sample use case using step-by-step guides. The intent is not to overload you with a plethora of state-of-the-art tools, rather the focus will be on enabling you to use AI tools for your daily professional life as a Technical Product or Program Manager.
“And then what?” is a phrase and a question that’s commonly used/asked in my Payments team. This 3 word phrase is very powerful and necessary for a couple of reasons: one because it promotes 2nd and 3rd order thinking and second because our decisions impact how trillions of dollars move everyday between countries & continents.
Navigating the challenges of autonomy at workplace
As I have grown in my career, I have experienced different forms of autonomy. One which comes quite close to micromanagement and another, which gives ample freedom. Juxtaposing the two type of autonomies, a lot of people would prefer ample freedom and complete autonomy. But is that the right option, just when you’re starting your career? Or is there an option that creates a balance in the spectrum of autonomy – where you get the right amount of guidance as well as independence? Let’s find out more in this blog, wherein I will share my learnings derived based on my experience handling different type of autonomy as well as talking to and observing other colleagues.
As a Product Manager, I am responsible for estimating the revenue for the features and capabilities that I propose to be built. Over the last several months, I have been doing revenue estimation for the features and capabilities that I own in the app. I even talked about it in my last blog how I had to build up a hypothesis, estimate revenue to project the value of the feature, when I had recently joined as a product manager. In this blog, I will be talking about how I went from idea to an impact stage, and an actual example on how to estimate projected revenue for a new feature. So let’s dive in!
In my last post reflecting on the year that went by, I shared that I got a new role of Data Product Manager in Citi. Well, it’s almost 4 months for me in this role and I thought of writing another post reflecting on my learnings and experience of first 90 days.
So I thought of breaking down this post and share 7 initial impressions, in the form of learnings. A point to note is that these are based on completely personal experience, subjective opinions derived from being in a Product Management role in a Banking & Financial Services company. Hence, these impressions and learnings that I accrued from my role could vary! So now let’s get into it the meat of the substance.
Well you know how much someone procrastinates, when that person writes a reflection of the past year in April of the following year! But to be really honest, I was having a roller-coaster of a ride during the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. Let’s start!
